838 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[April 15, 1S71. 
character, the word ‘ ammonium ’ might obviously he 
used; hut when they were related to the class of amides 
on the one hand, or seemed more nearly related to 
alkalies on the other, he was not quite sure whether 
the balance of advantage was not the other way. At 
any rate, this was a point wdiich should he left open, 
and the words ammonium and ammonia might he used 
indifl'erently. Again, in some of these longer names, 
he thought Professor Attfield had striven to arrive at 
that which he himself reprobated, viz. strict scientific 
accuracy where it was not required, and some of these 
names he did not think particularly fortunate; for 
instance, oxyhydrate of iron magnetic, peroxyhydrate 
of iron and perhydrate of iron moist. Strictly speaking, 
the last was not chemically accurate, inasmuch as it 
was not a hydrate which was a hydrate alone ; the com¬ 
pound was partially a hydrate and partially an oxide; 
it did not correspond with a perchloride by substituting 
for each atom of chlorine an atom of hydroxyl. If ac¬ 
curacy were attempted it should he carried out, or the 
whole scheme would call for further revision. Then 
came the question of the salts, which it was proposed to 
call oxyacetate of copper and lead, oxynitrate of bismuth 
and oxycarbonate of bismuth. In these cases he much 
preferred the word sub , because, at any rate, it was not 
pretentious, and did not profess to give the exact defini¬ 
tion of the body, while some of these names were scarcely 
accurate. He was not at that moment prepared to say 
whether oxyacetate of copper was strictly correct; but 
in some cases the salts were really hydraxyacetates, and 
if a name of that kind were introduced at all it might as 
well be strictly accurate. Under the circumstances, 
however, he should repudiate strict accuracy, and would 
suggest the use of the prefix sub where necessary for 
distinction. Where substances belonged to two different 
classes it would be sufficient to distinguish one class only; 
for instance, in the majority of cases it would be suf¬ 
ficient to say sulphate of iron and persulphate, but if it 
that were not sufficient there would be no difficulty in 
using the word protosulphate. In the case of chloride 
of mercury this would hardly, perhaps, suffice, and in 
that case the word sub might judiciously be used to 
distinguish the sub-chloride, although the word sub 
would then be used not in a strictly analogous sense to 
that in which it was applied to acetates and carbonates, 
basic salts, but would bo applied in an exceptional 
manner to an exceptional substance, to fulfil an excep¬ 
tional purpose. One other remark with reference to the 
modification of bodies by means of suffixes or affixes. 
Such terminations as mercurous and mercuric lent them¬ 
selves very well to express the composition of bodies, 
much better indeed than the prefixes per and proto , but 
yet the argument seemed a very fair one which had 
been raised by Professor Attfield and the President, that 
for pharmaceutical purposes these names were scarcely 
practicable. In the two sulphates of iron, the persul¬ 
phate and protosulphate, it was scarcely possible to dis¬ 
tinguish between the sulphate element of the two by 
any mode of reaction whatever, and thus the part which 
was distinguished in name was hardly distinguishable in 
fact; whereas the part not distinguished in name—the 
iron—it was well known was in the two states known 
as ferrous and ferric, more dissimilar than the two metals 
nickel and cobalt, or even than nickel and iron. There¬ 
fore that portion was altered in name which was scarcely 
found to be altered in any way in its properties, while 
those things remained the same in name which were 
really most distinct. He could not therefore approve 
of such names for chemical purposes; but still, con¬ 
sidering the difficulties which had been raised with re¬ 
gard to the practice which physicians adhered to of 
curtailing names, he did not see that in pharmacy any 
better plan could be adopted. 
Dr. Quain said he had listened to both the paper and 
the discussion with the greatest pleasure. He had come 
not to take any part in the discussion, but simply in 
a conservative capacity, intending, if he hoard any pro¬ 
posals for rashly changing names, which ho was very 
happy to state he had not, humbly to protest against 
it, for nothing was more deprecated by physicians 
than to find the names of the materials with which 
they woi'ked, altered, whilst the materials themselves 
remained the same. It might be true that “ the rose 
would smell as sweet by any other name,” but if the 
same drug were presented to a patient by a different 
name, in many cases they would not believe it had the 
same action. And not only so, but when scientific che¬ 
mists were constantly, and of necessity he admitted, 
changing the names of bodies in accordance with the 
views they formed of their composition, it was some¬ 
times very hard for practical physicians to keep up with 
them. As had been said repeatedly, names should bo 
short, clear and expressive; and if they were so, and 
persons knew what was meant, whether it was, for ex¬ 
ample, black antimony, or tartarated iron, these names 
were just as good as if they were called by the long 
high-sounding titles that had been mentioned. For his 
own part, he should say the simpler the name the better, 
and if possible, whenever a new edition of the Phar¬ 
macopoeia was issued, he hoped the names would be 
made still simpler and more expressive, always keep¬ 
ing in view that a minimum of change was desirable. 
With regard to the time when a new edition might 
be looked for, he hoped it would be a long time yet; 
and considering the great favour with which the pre¬ 
sent edition, prepared under the supervision of Dr. 
Redwood, had been received, he saw no reason to be¬ 
lieve it would be soon superseded. At the same time he 
thought it advisable that any proposed changes of names 
should be brought forward and discussed‘early, in order 
that there might be less difficulty when the time for a 
new edition did come. 
Mr. Groves said it was the common practice of pre- 
scribers to write both diluted hydrocyanic acid and di¬ 
luted hydrochloric acid as acicl hydroc., which sometimes 
occasioned a difficulty. He suggested the propriety of 
going back to the old name prussic acid. Acidum prus - 
sicum dilution was perfectly definite, and expressed no 
theoretical notions. 
Dr. Redwood thought the great objection to that 
would be that it was too readily understood by patients. 
The same difficulty had been urged in other cases. 
Mr. Groves said he believed the public were getting 
so wide awake that they recognized hydrocyanic acid as 
easily as prussic acid. 
Professor Attfield, in reply to the observations which 
had been made, said his paper was divided into two dis¬ 
tinct portions; five-sixths related to the alteration in the 
names of salts of the alkali-metals and alkaline earth- 
metals, and the other sixth to certain exceptional altera¬ 
tions, and it was peculiarly gratifying to him to find that 
his remarks on the nomenclature of the alkaline and 
earthy salts were pretty much confirmed by every 
speaker. Most of the exceptional alterations had been 
introduced with the view of starting a discussion on cer¬ 
tain unsatisfactory names ; he was quite willing to leave 
several of these names as they stood. 
The Chairman said he could not help thinking he had 
seen during the last few years more or less inclination to 
call things by their wrong names. Certain preparations 
had been called by definite chemical names which did not 
really answer to their composition, and thus a practice 
had grown up which was a disgrace to pharmacists, and 
the alteration of which would certainly be attended with 
great advantage. 
Oxyhydrogen Light. —The Scientific American states, 
that a prism cut out of the mineral dolomite may be sub¬ 
stituted with advantage in place of the lime cylinders 
now generally employed. As dolomite is an abundant 
rock, its application in this way may prove useful for 
purposes of lighting. 
